October 12, 2005

What's It Gonna Take To Get You Into This 128Mb MP3 Player?

Kids are small, and the capacity of their MP3 players should be, too. That's the reasoning behind Disney's new Mix Stick series, small USB- and SD/MMC card-enabled MP3/WMA players designed for kids. They're $50 a pop.

Tiny capacity, but even not counting the optional 1Gb SD memory expansion, with Tinkerbell, Mickey, and [yikes] Princesses models available, I'd still run out of capacity for character-laden electronic tchotchkes before the kid runs out of storage space.

What's that you say, you don't have a computer? No problem, says Disney; they will sell you WMA-formatted albums on SD cards with Disney hits for your Mix Stick, which retail for about "the equivalent of a CD." So far, there are four, including "stars" like Clay Aiken covering Disney classic tunes. And all the songs your kid just heard from this week's episode of Desperate Housewives. Just kidding.